The endless trauma caused by Mumia

It’s 40 years and counting, and it won’t go away — because supporters of cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal won’t let it.

Not because their cause is right, but because it is left. Decades before defunding the police, we had dishonoring the police.

One of the more famous celebrity supporters was Lou Grant Ed Asner, an admitted soft-core Marxist, who, when cornered, said he really didn’t know squat about the case.

He was against the death penalty, period, he said. Guilt was irrelevant.

Conversely, Hollywood celebrity Mike Farrell, once a star of TV’s “MASH,” was knowledgeable about the case, and spoke with more than just feelings.

As we just passed the Dec. 9th 40th anniversary of the assassination of Police Officer Danny Faulkner, the media geared up, such as with this report from WHYY.

This is a generally fair summary, but with some notable blotches and lapses that I will be happy to point out.

Start with the inclusion of Temple prof/journalist Linn Washington — he was a colleague for a time at the Philadelphia Daily News — a long-time critic of the trial and its outcome, he has concluded that Mumia was innocent. Washington is Black, as is the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, of which Mumia was a member. PABJ has never claimed Mumia was innocent. PABJ has been strangely quiet about the entire mess over the years.

The WHYY story talks about Mumia having advocates all over the world (with a street named for him in a Paris suburb by the gullible French).

It does not say Mumia has practically no support in his home town. I have covered many local rallies, with more kids bussed in from Columbia than from Temple. Philadelphians know, despite some irregularities in the trial, Mumia did it. 

A Black filmmaker, Tigre Hill, produced a documentary, “The Barrel of a Gun,” which concluded Mumia was guilty as sin.

Seems to me if WHYY wanted to use Washington — which is fair — it could have used Hill for balance. That would have been fair, too, but Hill’s documentary is filled with harsh facts pointing to Mumia’s guilt, and falls outside the WHYY narrative.

WHYY describes Mumia as a journalist who once reported for WHYY.

It does not say he got fired by WHYY for repeatedly slipping radical commentary into what should have been news reports. At the time of his arrest, he was a cab driver, not a journalist.

The WHYY story says Mumia maintains his innocence — except he did not maintain his innocence at trial. He did not testify in his own behalf. He was not required to testify, but there were only three people known to be at the murder scene — himself, his brother William Cook, and Faulkner.

Two people were shot on Locust just below 13th: Faulker, with Mumia’s gun — and Mumia, with Faulkner’s gun.

Why would Faulkner shoot Mumia?

I have dealt with what I call the Mumidiots over the years, bewildered by how their version of events changes when facts explode their fantasies.

How did Mumia get shot? I ask them.

“He was coming to Faulkner’s aid and was shot by him by mistake,” I was told.

So the establishment-hating Black Panther was rushing to help a cop?

Yeah, right.

I was also told Mumia’s gun was unloaded, because he had shot at the range the day before.

So the cab driver who had a pistol for self defense carried it unloaded?

The Mumidiots believe in fairy tales.

WHYY says several people who didn’t testify at the original trial have come forward with claims that Mumia is innocent. 

Why didn’t they testify at the trial? Why didn’t William Cook, Mumia’s brother?

Who shot Faulkner with Mumia’s gun, registered to him, the only .38 at the scene?

And who shot Mumia? 

The story puts its thumb in the scale by saying Mumia came of age in “Rizzo’s Philadelphia,” even though Bill Green was mayor at the time of the murder. The invocation of Rizzo is meant to color the narrative, as is the inclusion of reporting on D.A. Larry Krasner’s conviction integrity unit, which has overturned a bunch of convictions. Why is that included other to slyly suggest Mumia was wrongly convicted?

Through endless appeals, Mumia’s original conviction has stood.

A few years back, with widow Maureen Faulkner’s acquiescence, then-D.A. Seth Williams agreed not to pursue reinstating the death penalty that had been overturned in court.

The deal was Mumia would get life, and die in prison.

His supporters now are trying to get him released on grounds he is in poor health.

His health is better than Faulkner’s, I can assure you.